In an April 22 article about the Patent Reform Act of 2009 ("Commerce Department voices support for patent reform bill amendment"), GPC’s CEO, Alexander Poltorak – who is also the founder and President of American Innovators for Patent Reform (AIPR) – was quoted extensively.

Regarding some of the changes proposed in this legisation, he said “post-grant opposition will be yet another way to diminish patent rights and make patents unenforceable and hurt innovation." To read the complete article at NLJ's online edition you must register and log in, but it is free.

The following is an excerpt from the article.

The PTO needs to be run more like a business and have some authority to manage its budget, said Alexander Poltorak, the founder and president of American Innovators for Patent Reform, a coalition of inventors, companies and licensing executives.

"What needs to be done in the context of Patent Reform Act, is for it to be made into law to permanently stop diversion of [the agency's] funds," Poltorak said.

But while the AIPLA supports the post-grant review process for patents, the innovators coalition believes it will prove to be another avenue of "preventing the patent owners from exercising their rights and stopping infringement," said Poltorak.

Poltorak noted that patent owners are already contending with growing numbers of re-examination proceedings at the PTO. Defendants in patent infringement suits frequently ask the PTO to re-examine the patent holder's patent. In fiscal year 2009, 591 third parties requested patent re-examinations, compared to 358 in fiscal year 2005.

The post-grant opposition "will be yet another way to diminish patent rights and make patents unenforceable and hurt innovation," he said. "These proceedings will be quite expensive, and many patent owners will simply abandon their patent rather then defend them in costly litigation-like proceedings."